


With Frogs Like These,

by Roryshipsit



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Pet Store, Crack Treated Seriously, Friends to Lovers, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rayla and crowmaster work at a pet shop, claudia is a poison dart frog enthusiast, crow master goes by cam, everyone is their canon ages, lujanne is their manager
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-19
Updated: 2019-04-19
Packaged: 2020-01-16 13:36:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18522619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Roryshipsit/pseuds/Roryshipsit
Summary: It's not that Rayla doesn't like her job. She likes lots of things about her job. She likes the free crickets for Zym. She likes that, around the end of her shift, if she leans over the cash register just right, she can make eye contact with her best friend in the parking lot. She even kind of likes the suspense of waiting for the frog girl to shop up. But maybe, just once, she'd like to make her Friday night curfew.





	With Frogs Like These,

8:48pm.

Rayla groans again, hoping her manager Lujanne would at least look up at the sound. Over the summer, when Rayla worked morning shifts, her coworkers were quick to give her a sympathetic glance, even a pat on the shoulder or a “hang in there, kid.”, but the other night shifters are all too absorbed in their own boredom, leaving Rayla to deal with hers alone. Great. She huffs again just in case.

 _12 minutes until closing time,_ she thinks. _Technically._ That means anywhere between 1 and 15 minutes until _she_ shows up.

 _She_ was basically keeping rept-aisle in business by herself. Every friday night, right around closing, she come's in to buy crickets. About once a month she also buys another frog. That's like, 4 frogs since Rayla stated the night shift, and apparently she's been coming in for way longer than that. 

“She’s definitely committing identity fraud.” Cam, Rept-aisle's Head of Customer Service (a fancy name for a person who works the cash register _and_ takes phone calls) , had told Rayla on her first day. “She uses a different customer account basically every time she comes in. Lujanne’s always reminding us to get to know the frequent customer’s names, but like, how am I supposed to do that? Every day at checkout I’m like, “Aaravos? Really? That’s you?” and then she’s like “Yeah!”. Honestly she kind of reminds me of Lujanne anyways...”

All Rayla really knows about her is that she has no respect for closing times. And that she has a very unconventional fashion sense. And long, shiny, black hair that kind of glides around her when she walks. Anyways.

Rayla huffs (again) to no avail (again). Maybe if she’s really lucky, she can catch Callum’s eye out the window, where he sometimes waits for his dad. She's always telling him he can just wait in the store with her, but she sort of gets the sense that he doesn't trust Lujanne. Not that she can really hold that against him. Rayla leans over the cash register to get a better view of the window, and-

 _Chime_

“Gooood Morning petco!” She singsongs. Just like every other night, She's wearing oversized pajamas and tinted sunglasses. Tonight, she's added a fuzzy purple bathrobe, which has slid down to her elbows like a wrap. Inexplicably, she is applying black lipstick as she walks in.

“Special occasion?” Cam mouths at her from the cricket keeper. Rayla only has time to raise her eyebrows before the girl walks over to her.

“Hi, welcome to Rept-aisle! We close at 9.” Rayla beams, hoping that gets the message across without picking a fight.

“Perfect!” The other girl exclaims, and then walks right past Rayla, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “Dart frogs.” She offers in explanation, glancing back.  
Rayla's fists clench and release behind the counter, ears a little warm. “Perfect.” She sighs, and follows her towards the amphibian wall.  
When she gets there, the other girl is already crouched down by the displays.  
“How much for that one?” she says, tapping the glass next to a little golden dart frog.  
“Um, just over 80 with tax, but could you please not-”  
“Oh perfect, under budget!” She says. “That’s the one, then. _a little birdie told me you're one of the deadliest frogs in the whole wide world_ ”  
“uh, you know dart frogs aren’t toxic in captivity, right?”  
“Well sure,” she stops cooing long enough to look up at Rayla over her sunglasses. " _if_ you feed them like, crickets and stuff. With the right diet? sure they are. _isn't that right? I'm gonna call you Clementine_ "  
“but why on earth would you want…” From out of the corner of her eye, Rayla sees Lujanne wave to her from the entrance. She checks her phone again, revealing that it is, in fact, 9:00 already. “You know what,” She clears her throat. “Let me just get you those forms.”

About 20 minutes later (that’s 20 minutes after Rayla was supposed to be off the clock, thank you very much), the girl is all set up with her new _phylobates terribillis._

“Do you have a phone number with us?” Rayla asks out of habit.  
“You betcha,” she says, entering the number into the keypad. The account information flashes on the moniter.  
“Really, you’re Harrow Melekh?” the name rings a bell, but the other girl just kind of hums. Anyways, Rayla is too distracted by the sweet call of freedom to think any more about it. “Here’s your receipt. Have a nice night.” she mumbles, fishing around for her keys.

When she looks up, the shop is empty.


End file.
